Herb of the Month - An Essential Herbalism Learning Method

The Holistic Herbalism Podcast

Herb of the Month is one of our most powerful learning methods for students of herbalism – and honestly, it’s great for experienced practitioners too! It’s deceptively simple: just choose an herb and work with it extensively every day for a month, in as many ways as you can come up with. At the same time, research the herb as far and wide as you can. In this way you can foreground your own direct experience with the plant, while also exploring the variety of possibilities the herb presents to you.

Some of our most important herbal allies are developed through an Herb of the Month practice! Very frequently, there are aspects of an herb’s qualities, actions, and nuances that can only be appreciated through visceral exposure. Just reading the words on paper, or hearing them in a recording (or classroom), doesn’t set up the same kind of sense-memory. Herbalism starts, after all, with the plants – not with their names, or lists of their chemicals, or their precise categorization according to an ancient schema. Herbalism began with people, and with plants – and for each one of us, it’s important to go back to that direct contact to make the deepest connections possible.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Our Recommended Resources, with links to many sites for herbal research
• A Modern Herbal by M. Grieve, a classic herbal materia medica book from 1931
• Classic Herbal Texts hosted at Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, a variety of texts from the 1800s and early 1900s

Herbs discussed include: chamomile, dandelion, burdock, chicory, schisandra, centaury, catnip, tarragon, anise hyssop.
Our Holistic Herbalism Materia Medica course is an exploration of 90 of the safest, most accessible, and most effective herbs we know. Any one of them would make a fantastic Herb of the Month! It’s a great way to learn the key features of important herbs and to see them in their fullness, rather than pigeon-holed into a “what’s that herb good for” category. The course comes with access to our twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, discussion threads in every lesson, and plenty more goodies in our online learning community.

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Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

This episode was sponsored by Mountain Rose Herbs. We thank them for their support!

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!